Derek,
English 250 has been an extremely helpful course. I have learned about each of the WOVE components and how to effectively communicate using these mediums. My strongest one is written communication because I am usually pretty good at getting down raw content. To strengthen this I need to allow myself more time to proofread my writing and seek out others who would be willing to proofread for me. I often end up waiting too long to start an assignment and then run out of time to find more than maybe one person who has the time to read through my writing. I also need to work more on creating pieces of writing which are organized for the reader. After I have read through my own writing a few times, I am no longer able to distinguish the reader’s point of view from my stance as the writer. This ties back to starting earlier in order to gather feedback from others. Aside from these issues, I believe written communication to be my strongest area.
My weakest area is oral communication in a public setting. I am terrible at public speaking. I get really red, cannot look at the audience, and usually end up speed talking my way through the information. This happens when I have not spent enough time preparing the content and/or rehearsing. The oral component of my visual analysis ended up being fairly decent. I typed it out word for word and read straight from the script. As I made my way through the analysis, I found instances where I would need to go back and change some of the words, but I never really went through it as a whole. I reviewed the video a few times once I was done editing and before I turned it in. However, I did not read through the script and proofread it.
In order to improve my communication, oral and written, I plan to allow myself more time to prepare and rehearse. By getting a rough draft done as soon as possible, I will have enough time to review the rough draft, find people to proofread it, and edit it. This will also allow me to look for bigger issues such as audience organization and transitions.
To improve how I tailor my writing to the audience, I will take into consideration how much prior knowledge they might possess, what types of resources they might have access to, and how they might be able to relate to my writing. All of these aspects will determine the structure of my paper and how much to include in each section. For example, in my writing Daylight Saving Time, I had to consider how much the reader might know about DST prior to reading my piece. I based this off the average American using my own knowledge as a guideline. I personally did not know that Benjamin Franklin was incorrectly credited with the idea of resetting the clocks. I used four paragraphs for background information and helped round out the average person’s knowledge of DST.
I believe my abilities to communicate using the WOVE model are strong but could always use improvement. By allotting myself more time for assignments I will be able to go through and strengthen them on multiple fronts. English 250 has helped me build a strong foundation for furthering my communication skills.
Sincerely,
Grace
